Thomas Paine, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
It is the first, and the second is what the priests say of it because they cannot answer it. My belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to believe that a book so obscure, disorderly and contradictory can be his work, and this disbelief in me proceeds from my belief in the Creator.1 A man who did not believe in God would have no cause to be offended at what is ascribed to him.
I am offended because I revere him. My creed is short, and I wrote it down in the Age of Reason's own pages: that the moral duty of man consists in imitating the goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures; that, seeing daily the goodness of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise the same towards each other; and that persecution, revenge and cruelty to animals are therefore a violation of moral duty.2
Now set beside that creed the command in Deuteronomy: "thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them." Not all the priests, nor scribes, nor tribunals in the world, shall make me believe that God ever gave such a precept as that of shewing no mercy, and no person who thinks as reverentially of the Creator as I do can believe such a book to be his word.3
I defend him against the book. As to the prosecutor's manner, I grant the charge and deny that it is a fault. I proceeded as one does with any document whose authority is claimed. Had the cruel and murdering orders with which the Bible is filled been ascribed to some friend whose memory you revered, you would have glowed with satisfaction at detecting the falsehood and gloried in defending his injured fame.4
If it had come to us as a Chinese book we should have examined it, and I ask why we should deal less honourably with the Creator when it comes as a Jewish one.5 And the question is not a point of doctrine but a matter of fact: is the book called the Bible the word of God, or is it not? If it can be proved so, believe it; if not, not. Those who take the contrary side should prove that it is, and they have done nothing of the kind.6
So I went book by book. The books ascribed to Samuel narrate things that happened years after he was dead, and are in themselves positive evidence that he did not write them.7 That is evidence, laid before the reader, to be answered with evidence. The man who would suppress the examination is the one who has something to fear from it. To suppress the right of examination is sinful in any government, or in any judge or jury.8
Religion is a private affair between every man and his Maker, and no tribunal or third party has a right to interfere between them.9 I have no quarrel with believers who are honest. My quarrel is with those who call the book holy because custom and Acts of Parliament call it so, and who take it blindfolded.10 What I offer in its place is the pure and moral religion of deism, and the evidence I produce will, whilst it wounds the stubbornness of a priest, relieve and tranquillize the minds of millions, freeing them from those hard thoughts of the Almighty which priestcraft and the Bible had infused into them.11
He believes in one God and no more, hopes for happiness beyond this life, and holds the equality of man and the duties of justice, mercy and the happiness of others to be religion. He does not believe the creed of any church; his own mind is his own church. Revelation is revelation only to the man who receives it and hearsay to everyone after; the Bible is a book of fables, obscenities and cruelties that it is blasphemy to attribute to God, and he says so to defend God, not to attack him.
The true word of God is the creation, which cannot be forged, suppressed or lost in translation, and which science reads. He wrote it in France when the whole national order of priesthood had fallen, lest in the wreck of superstition we lose sight of morality, of humanity and of the theology that is true.12131415
my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to believe that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and contradictory can be his work. I can write a better book myself. This disbelief in me proceeds from my belief in the Creator.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
the moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
Not all the priests, nor scribes, nor tribunals in the world, nor all the authority of man, shall make me believe that God ever gave such a Robesperiatt precept as that of shewing no mercyThe Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
Had the cruel and murdering orders, with which the Bible is filled, and the numberless torturing executions of men, women, and children, in consequence of those orders, been ascribed to some friend, whose memory you revered, you would have glowed with satisfaction at detecting the falsehood of the chargeThe Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
As a Chinese book we would have examined it; ought we not then to examine it as a Jewish book?The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
The case in question is not upon any point of doctrine, but altogether upon a matter of fact. Is the book called the Bible the word of God, or is it not?The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
the books are in themselves positive evidence that they were not written by Samuel.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
to suppress the right of examination is sinful in any government, or in any judge or jury.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
Religion is a private affair between every man and his Maker, and no tribunal or third party has a right to interfere between them.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
Those of the Church of England call it holy, because the Jews called it so, and because custom and certain Acts of Parliament call it so... they take it blindfoldedThe Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
it will free them from all those hard thoughts of the Almighty which priestcraft and the Bible had infused into their mindsThe Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
The case, however, is, that the bible will not bear examination in any part of it, which it would do if it was the Word of God. Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradictory parts out of sight. T. P. OF THE RELIGION OF DEISM COMPARED WITH THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE SUPERIORITY OF THE FORMER OVER THE LATTER.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
Thirdly, That the moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
But there is not a passage in the Old Testament that speaks of a person who, after being crucified, dead, and buried, should rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven. Our prophecy-mongers supply the silence the Old Testament guards upon such things, by telling us of passages they call prophecies, and that falsely so, about Joseph's dream, old cloaths, broken bones, and suchlike trifling stuff.The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol 4, 1794-1796
It is also false that all religion in France was abolished by a decree. The national assembly passed a decree to banish the refractory priests, those who took the oath of fidelity to the republic, performed their worship as before, except they were prohibited making public processions in the streets with their crucifixes, images of the Virgin Mary, saints &c. and as to the Protestant church in the Rue St.Letters 1772-1808 Not in Conway
The book that destroyed his standing in his lifetime and made him the patron of freethought after it; the misreading of it as atheism began with its enemies and is still current.